Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy

In the book “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, the author is a lawyer and founder of the Equal Injustice Initiative who helps and defends those that are in desperate needs. Stevenson tells different stories of different cases that he had through the course of his professional career. One of the most heartbreaking stories that Stevenson shares on his books is about a boy named Charlie. Charlie is a fourteen years old who murdered his stepfather because he was abusive with his mom and left her unconscious on the floor. Charlie was sentenced to an adult prison because his stepfather was an ex-police officer. When Steven heard about Charlie’s case he ran to the prison to go see him and the first thing that Charlie tells Stevenson is how every night he would get sexually abused in prison by so many men ,and how they would do really awful things to him. “Florida is one of a few states that allows the prosecutor to decide to charge a child in adult court for certain crimes and has no minimum age for trying a child as an adult.”(Stevenson). Charlie’s case is not an unusual one. There are hundreds of prisoners currently in US prisons who are suffering ridiculous prison sentences while other prisoners with more violent, heinous, and terrible crimes have been sentenced to lesser time in jail or are already out. In order to understand why this is still a problem, it’s important to first understand the current issues facing prisons today and what effects come from these issues. Then

.In the Novel Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Bryan has met many difficult situations that have led to heartbreaking death penalties and unjustified charges. The men that stood out to Bryan Stevenson the most were Joe Sullivan and Herbert Richardson because of their harsh penalties. Joe Sullivan was a 13-year-old African-American boy who was convinced by two other black teens to break into an elderly woman’s home. Later that afternoon elderly woman Lena Bruner was brutally raped. Joe turns himself in, admits to being involved in the robbery but denies any involvement in the sexual assault. Joe was later charged with sexual battery. After Joe was put into jail for his unjustified involvement, Bryan Stevenson later found out that Joe was sexually

In the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Stevenson talked about the society in the 18th century had filled with racism. Black people did not have the same right with white people, and the court was injustice and racist. The purpose of the book by Bryan Stevenson was to show people the injustice and inequality towards colored people that happened in the 18th century court. Stevenson tried to make people flashback to the time that racism had dominated the society and to warn people to cherish the equality of all people regard their races today. His main ideas was people should not be judged based on their race; however, people should take care of each other and be fair to each other. Stevenson

Many are put onto death row without actually having a fighting chance to plead their case, provide the full story, and prove their innocence. Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who fights for those who have been left for dead and aren’t given a second chance. Bryan Stevenson is a social justice activist, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law. He founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989. Stevenson has fought long and hard for those whose voices have been silenced because of their ethnicity and background. His views have been strongly influenced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the faithful attendees of the church had celebrated for 'standing up after having fallen down, ' showing Bryan that no matter how many times you are knocked down, you can always pick yourself back up and there will always be someone there to lend you a helping hand. Making Bryan want to be that helping hand, to be the on there when someone had no one else to turn to. These experiences informed his belief that "each person in our society is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.” When Stevenson was sixteen, his grandfather, Clarence L. Golden, was stabbed to death in his Philadelphia home during a robbery.Bryan stevenson has dedicated himself to fighting poverty and challenging

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a story of innocents sentenced to death row (2015). As an attorney at law, he sheds light on the fraudulent Criminal Justice System with the corruption of cops and prison guards, bribed witnesses, and paid off judges. Written in first person, Stevenson’s (2015) account depicts 50 years of debasement of the Criminal Justice System. Telling the accounts of corruption in first person and using dialogue that included the actual victims conversations allowed his readers to be invested in the story. His vocabulary and the stories used, made the reader realize that corruption takes place in the United States Criminal Justice System both in history and continues through today.

When entering college, there are many things to consider. Having to make such important life decisions can be very overwhelming for a high school senior. Not only are teenagers expected to make a decision on where they are going to potentially be spending the next four years, but they are also deciding who and how that is going to look like. In the article “A college education should include rooming with a stranger,” Ann Altman uses emotional diction to persuade readers to consider what their living conditions will be like their first year of college.

According to the American Psychological Association, a 2014 article states, “Mental illness among today's inmates is also pervasive, with 64 percent of jail inmates, 54 percent of state prisoners and 45 percent of federal prisoners reporting mental health concerns” (Incarnation Nation). This statistic is appalling and should not be considered an acceptable number. More than half of jailers and prisoners report mental health concerns; this is static that should not be taken lightly and needs to be addressed. Mentally incarnated people and prison cells do not go well together; it creates a recipe for disaster for the individual suffering behind bars. The purpose of prison is to “retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation”

In the book Just Mercy: A story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, there are several topics discussed regarding the American Justice system. One of those many topics discussed is regarding how a person’s race, social status and income, may influence the outcome of a court trail. In present day America, many years after the era of Jim crow and segregation the Justice system still seems to be more lenient towards white Americans, especially those with high income and a good standing in society. The American justice system has become unjust in the trials deemed to be fair, due to an evident prejudice against minorities, their social status and whether or not they receive a well off or poor income.

“Just mercy” written by Bryan Stevenson is a story about “justice and redemption”(title). Bryan Stevenson tells the story about Walter McMillian a convicted murder. McMillian was unjustly charged for the murder of Ronda Morrison by Ralph Myers even though there was clear evidence that McMillian did not commit this murder. McMillian’s story proves the inequities in the American justice system, and Stevenson proves the faults in the system by telling McMillian’s story. “Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done”(17). When we judge people based on their person not the facts innocent people can be charged for crimes that they never committed, and that is where are justice system is unjust.

Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy, has many themes in his book. One of which is the importance of human life. He goes through many cases of which, in the end, he realizes that every human deserves empathy and mercy and a fair chance at living their lives. Throughout the novel there is one specific case that changes Stevenson’s perspective the most however. This case is the Walter McMillian case that demonstrates the unfairness that was tolerated for death row inmates. Stevenson expresses this theme throughout the book. Some examples are through the McMillian case, the mental patient case, the juvenile case, and his own experience.

Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, is a lawyer from the rural south that advocates for mostly children on death row. He spends most of his time in low income communities with next to no hope. His TED talk was based on his experiences in these communities, his career, and his knowledge regarding minorities while addressing his predominately financially stable, White audience. Trying to persuade an audience that is not effected by what you are trying to speak against is hard, however, Bryan Stevenson is able to do so. Bryan Stevenson’s 2012 TED talk uses ethos to persuade his audience by using his status as a prominent lawyer and an everyday person who many people know and can relate to with strong respectable values in life to prove himself as a trustworthy person in order to argue his point on how the American justice system distorts the truth racial discrimination in the system, as well as the poverty t faces. His use of ethos enables him to establish trust in his audience that can make a major difference in the justice system with most of them being well respected people in society.

In his memoir Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson recounts the stories of several clients whose mental illness was ignored during their trial. Some had intellectual disabilities, others were dealing with the aftermath of severe trauma, but each one was changed in some way. Whether their reasoning had been altered or they simply did not understand what was happening, any crime they committed was closely tied to their mental state. Logically, a major detail like the defendant’s thought process and motivation behind the crime would have been discussed, but this was not the case. Any evidence of their illness was forgotten about or outright ignored by both the prosecution and the defense. When considering each crime with their mental illness in mind, sentencing the defendant to death row is needlessly cruel. Their avoidance of the topic shows a complete failure to understand how important it can be to an individual’s decision-making abilities.

The novel, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson covers many aspects of the legal system, including Stevenson’s quest to get prisoners who were convicted as adolescents out of adult prison. Through Stevenson’s experiences, he sees first hand experience of children that are sent to adult prisons. Specifically he saw how the prisoners who were convicted as children revert to a very low mental state and often have a great deal of trouble readjusting if they are even remotely capable of doing so. One of these experiences that Bryan Stevenson encountered was with a young fourteen year old named Charlie and the impacts of an adult world in a child’s head. Children should never be pushed into adult prisons or receive adult punishments because of their lack of clear understanding of difficult situations.

A month ago we started reading the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. At first it was like any other assigned book, you read it because it is assigned and you want a good grade. You don’t try especially hard to connect to the text and count the pages until you are done. Then it changed. Stevenson’s voice shined through and he began to tell stories about people who I never gave a second thought about, child murderers, wrongly convicted mothers and exonerated death row inmates. I connected to this book in a way I’ve never connected to an assigned book before. I began to look forward to reading further and reading ahead before the chapters were assigned. I discussed the book not only at school but at home any chance I could get. I began

[Taulbert, 56]. When I arrived at Wake Forest University, about two and half years ago, I found myself bombarded with choices. Options were everywhere: What courses should I take? What should I major in? What